Latest news with #POSTECH
Yahoo
08-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
From waste to wonder: Revival of ancient Roman ‘golden fiber' with pen shells
The golden silk, a luxury once reserved for Roman emperors, has been recreated by modern scientists. In a study published in Advanced Materials, a research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) announced they have successfully produced the 2,000-year-old textile known as Sea Silk. They accomplished this using threads from the common pen shell, farmed along the Korean coast. The team's work also explains the origin of the material's characteristic golden hue and its famed resistance to fading over millennia. Sea Silk is a historic luxury textile from ancient Rome, once reserved for garments worn by figures such as emperors and popes. Crafted from the byssal threads (silky filaments used for anchoring) of the large Mediterranean mollusk Pinna nobilis, the textile was prized for being both lightweight and durable. Its most notable feature was an unfading golden luster. Today, marine pollution and overfishing have pushed Pinna nobilis to the brink of extinction, and its harvesting is now prohibited. 'In all of Europe, only one artisan is still permitted to harvest and process Pinna nobilis for Sea Silk,' explained Professor Hwang Dong Soo, a leader of the research team. 'By collaborating with this artisan and Germany's Max Planck Institute, we obtained a valuable sample for our comparative research.' To find a substitute for the endangered Pinna nobilis, the POSTECH team investigated the pen shell (Atrina pectinata), which is commonly farmed on the Korean coast. Traditionally, the byssal threads of these pen shells were discarded as a valueless byproduct of the food industry. While their large European relatives produce long, robust filaments, Korean pen shells are smaller and their threads are shorter, a reason they have been largely overlooked by researchers. However, the POSTECH team found that this byproduct was a suitable alternative. 'We focused on their core similarities,' professor Hwang explained. 'Both mollusks belong to the same family, and their X-ray crystal structures and protein sequences are nearly identical.' But the path to revival presented its own challenges. The most significant hurdle was logistical: securing the raw material itself. 'We had to ask fishermen to separately collect the byssal threads, which they would normally just throw away,' Professor Hwang recalled. 'It took a special request to the head of a fishing cooperative at a pen shell farm just to gather the amount we needed for our research.' The breakthrough came after years of dedication. Lead author Professor Choi Jimin finally solved a puzzle that had long intrigued Professor Hwang, providing an experimental explanation for the silk's properties. They discovered its brilliant hue is not a product of dye but of 'structural color'. a phenomenon where a material's microscopic structure itself creates color, similar to the iridescent shimmer of a butterfly's wing In Sea Silk, this microscopic architecture is composed of spherical proteins that the team named 'Photonin'. These proteins form precise multi-layered patterns, and the orderliness of this alignment determines the vividness of the golden hue: the more brilliant the pattern, the more brilliant the color. Because this color is an intrinsic part of the physical structure, the fiber is exceptionally lightfast and experiencing almost no discoloration over centuries. The study's significance lies in demonstrating how a discarded industrial byproduct can be converted into a high-value material. As a practical first step, the research team is now collaborating with a clothing and textiles department to weave the Sea Silk into actual fabric. Professor Hwang suggested that potential applications could extend far beyond textiles, envisioning uses in luxury apparel, cosmetics, and even as a high-end culinary ingredient. 'If you grind the Sea Silk, it resembles gold powder,' he explained, 'and since it's a protein, it's edible.' The story was produced in partnership with our colleagues at Popular Science Korea. Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
27-06-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
Golden Fiber Worn by Emperors Resurrected After 2,000 Years
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. One of the most prized materials of antiquity—the luxurious "golden fiber of the sea" that was reserved for the likes of Roman emperors—has been resurrected after 2,000 years. Often proposed as the inspiration for the "Golden Fleece" of Greek myth, sea silk is made from the "byssus" threads secreted by the pen shell Pinna nobilis, a large species of clam that is native to the Mediterranean, to anchor it to rocks on the seafloor. Sea silk was valued for being lightweight, warm and finer than regular silk, but also for its iridescent, golden color that wouldn't fade. A sample of the new sea silk. A sample of the new sea silk. POSTECH Ecological decline, overfishing and marine pollution, however, have driven P. nobilis into endangered status, with harvesting of the clam has been banned and the art of spinning byssus thread now limited to but a few individuals. Now, however, professor Dong Soo Hwang of South Korea's Pohang University of Science and Technology and colleagues have spun sea silk from the "waste" byproduct of a commercially farmed shellfish—and revealed the secret of its lasting color. In their study, Hwang and colleagues focused on another "pen shell" species, Atrina pectinata, which is cultivated off of the coast of Korea for food. Just like its endangered cousin P. nobilis, A. pectinata secretes byssus threads to anchor itself to the sea floor. The researchers determined that these threads are both chemically and physically similar to those produced by P. nobilis—and, moreover, can be processed to recreate golden sea silk. Analysis of this material has revealed what gives sea silk its distinctive golden hue and why the color is so resistant to fading over time. Rather than being the result of some form of dye, the golden sheen of sea silk is inherent, a form of "structural coloration" derived from the way light reflects off its nanostructures. The same phenomenon can also be seen at play in the iridescent surfaces or soap bubbles and on butterfly wings. Pictured: a pen shell, both closed (left) and open (right), showing the byssus from which the material for the sea silk is taken. Pictured: a pen shell, both closed (left) and open (right), showing the byssus from which the material for the sea silk is taken. POSTECH In the case of sea silk, the structural coloration come from the layering of a spherical protein called photonin—one that becomes more vivid the more orderly the protein arrangement. The result is a coloring that is highly stable. "Structurally colored textiles are inherently resistant to fading," said Hwang in a statement. "Our technology enables long-lasting color without the use of dyes or metals, opening new possibilities for sustainable fashion and advanced materials." Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about sea silk? Let us know via science@ Reference Choi, J., Im, J.-H., Kim, Y.-K., Shin, T. J., Flammang, P., Yi, G.-R., Pine, D. J., & Hwang, D. S. (2025). Structurally Colored Sustainable Sea Silk from Atrina pectinata. Advanced Materials.
